Happy Birthday America!

1. No one has a monopoly on patriotism. Hyper-aggressive nationalism, yes, some folks may have cornered the market on that. Also, That Flag only means one thing, and flying it helps us understand a great deal about you.

But allow me to admit that in 2017 I have a much better understanding of the "Secesh" in 1860/61, and the bitter revanchist bigot-niks of 2008/2009 et seq. (Of course, in both of those circumstances, the elemental reason for the action was "Yes but BLACK BLACK BLACK," whereas here my objection to Il Douche (h/t) is, I am magnificently confident, on pretty solid moral, ethical, intellectual, legal, constitutional, competency and security grounds.)

2.On this Fourth of July, with a fucking abject Nincompoop Dipshit running this country, a message of harmony, with a nice back-hand of "The North Says Fuck Your Nonsense": Gen. U.S. Grant, Vicksburg, 1863 July 4, from his Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, p. 332:

SUCK IT REBS!!

Vicksburg, MS, 4 July 1863, now under the command of loyal Americans, led by Gen. U. S. Grant